Down the hall, in music teacher Suzanne Schmittling’s class, kindergartner Giovanna Merchant sat on the floor and held two maracas. She watched interpreter Mary Ellen Easley, who gave her the signal when it was time to shake the maracas wildly.

The students were listening to a rendition of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” in which instrument sounds (drumsticks, drums, maracas and tambourines) were used instead of the traditional animal noises.

Giovanna slid over to the drumstick pile, looked up at Easley, and waited for the sign to bang the sticks together along with her classmates, who do not have hearing problems.

Their mainstream peers worked diligently, seemingly oblivious to interpreter Deborah Flagg — even as her arms and hands moved furiously as she “signed” the assignment.

All these students are in the Marion County School District’s Deaf & Hard of Hearing Program. But they are no longer taught in one room with only children who have similar disabilities.

Marion County is one of the few school districts in Florida that has moved to an aggressive inclusion-style curriculum for deaf and hard-of-hearing elementary school students in pre-K through fifth grade.

Instead of creating special schools or classrooms for such students, Marion County is using the inclusion concept in a much bigger way than even the federal government requires.

Federal law says all children, regardless of disabilities, should be educated in the “least restrictive environment” possible.

But there is no requirement to put disabled students in mainstream classes. Rather, federal policy requires school districts to educate students with disabilities in regular classrooms with their non-disabled peers “as much as possible.”

Lorilynn Bowie, the district’s program specialist over the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Program, said Marion County decided to find the best way to include every deaf and hard-of-hearing child in mainstream classes.

She said few, if any, of the state’s 67 school districts have launched an inclusion-type program as ambitious as Marion’s.

“We are having to create the concept ourselves,” Bowie said earlier this week when she visited South Ocala Elementary.

Bowie said the goal is to prepare all of the children to succeed by the time they reach middle and high school. After fifth grade, the deaf child’s elementary staff meets with the staff of his or her new middle school.

That’s when the best possible education plan is created to meet the child’s needs. Some students may have learning disabilities and end up in a mainstream self-contained ESE classroom, while others who are learning at grade level are assigned an interpreter and proceed in mainstream classes.

Marion County has 28 deaf children and 88 classified as hard of hearing in all elementary grade levels. Most of the deaf children attend, or have attended, South Ocala Elementary, which has been the hub for services since the late 1990s. The school district moved it there from Belleview Elementary because South Ocala was closer to the majority of the students who needed services.

The program didn’t always operate this way. In 2006-07, South Ocala had 12 deaf children in pre-K through fifth grade. Regardless of the severity of each child’s disability, or learning ability, they were divided into two groups: grades K-2 and 3-5.

They were all taught in one room divided by a piece of tape on the floor and a line of bookcases.

Two teaching teams, each with one teacher and one interpreter, were assigned students in their grade levels. Each student’s hearing impairment, as well as learning ability, ranged dramatically.

One child was deaf with major learning disabilities and had parents who had never learned sign language. A classmate was only deaf, with no learning disability, and could sign and learn at grade level.

Teaching two children with such different needs in the same classroom was an insurmountable challenge. In the end, the district formulated a better plan for the deaf and hearing-impaired.

The plan focused on inclusion, which started to gain nationwide momentum many years ago for students with a variety of disabilities.

At South Ocala there are currently 18 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Most are deaf and most started their academic careers at age 3 in Lisa Corneilson’s pre-K class, which is just for the deaf and hard of hearing.

These children get two full years of in-depth education. In most cases, it is the child’s first time learning to communicate. (About 80 percent of the children come to the school district without any prior training in sign language.)

After two years in Corneilson’s room, the children are then evaluated. The children deemed to be learning at grade level are placed in traditional classrooms with interpreters. There is an interpreter assigned to each grade level that has a deaf or hearing-impaired child attending mainstream classes.

This method strives to achieve as much inclusion as possible. A minimalist approach would limit inclusion to just physical education classes or other non-core subjects.

At South Ocala, teacher Tara Hunter’s job is to travel from room to room, working individually with these mainstream deaf children in areas where they may be struggling.

“My job is to keep them on grade level” and prepared for the FCAT, she said.

The children who are not learning at grade level are placed in a “self-contained classroom” until the teacher, Katy Owen, can get them up to grade level. That classroom is just for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Still, though they report to Owen every morning, many of these students also attend some mainstream classes, such as music and PE. Under a minimalist approach, students learning below grade level may never be mainstreamed.

“Why should we treat deaf children any differently than our own children?” Owen asked. “We shouldn’t.”

In the end, South Ocala Principal Lisa Coy said the inclusion plan is successful for one reason: “I have such a great staff.”

Bowie said deaf and hearing-impaired students deserve to be included. She credits former South Ocala Principal Laura Burgess — now Maplewood Elementary principal — in helping develop the program.

If the district reverted to placing all the deaf and hearing-impaired students back in one classroom, the district could save about $100,000 — the cost of five interpreters.

Though district officials say such a move would not technically violate the intent of federal mainstreaming policy, it would negatively affect education for the deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

<p>First-grader Jarrod Stephens sat on a bench earlier this week just outside the South Ocala Elementary School cafeteria. He peered up at interpreter Dawn Christerson and grinned.</p><p>Aided with a cochlear implant — a hearing device surgically placed in the head of a deaf person to give him some sense of hearing — Jarrod used sign language to answer questions about school life.</p><p>Jarrod loves his first-grade teacher, Maggie McCraw. His favorite subject is physical education.</p><p>Down the hall, in music teacher Suzanne Schmittling's class, kindergartner Giovanna Merchant sat on the floor and held two maracas. She watched interpreter Mary Ellen Easley, who gave her the signal when it was time to shake the maracas wildly.</p><p>The students were listening to a rendition of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” in which instrument sounds (drumsticks, drums, maracas and tambourines) were used instead of the traditional animal noises.</p><p>Giovanna slid over to the drumstick pile, looked up at Easley, and waited for the sign to bang the sticks together along with her classmates, who do not have hearing problems.</p><p>Meantime, across campus, fourth-graders Tristen Jensen, 11, and Katie Brant, 9, were learning science in teacher Noelle Robles' class.</p><p>Their mainstream peers worked diligently, seemingly oblivious to interpreter Deborah Flagg — even as her arms and hands moved furiously as she “signed” the assignment.</p><p>All these students are in the Marion County School District's Deaf & Hard of Hearing Program. But they are no longer taught in one room with only children who have similar disabilities.</p><p>Marion County is one of the few school districts in Florida that has moved to an aggressive inclusion-style curriculum for deaf and hard-of-hearing elementary school students in pre-K through fifth grade.</p><p>Instead of creating special schools or classrooms for such students, Marion County is using the inclusion concept in a much bigger way than even the federal government requires.</p><p>Federal law says all children, regardless of disabilities, should be educated in the “least restrictive environment” possible.</p><p>But there is no requirement to put disabled students in mainstream classes. Rather, federal policy requires school districts to educate students with disabilities in regular classrooms with their non-disabled peers “as much as possible.”</p><p>Lorilynn Bowie, the district's program specialist over the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Program, said Marion County decided to find the best way to include every deaf and hard-of-hearing child in mainstream classes.</p><p>She said few, if any, of the state's 67 school districts have launched an inclusion-type program as ambitious as Marion's.</p><p>“We are having to create the concept ourselves,” Bowie said earlier this week when she visited South Ocala Elementary.</p><p>Bowie said the goal is to prepare all of the children to succeed by the time they reach middle and high school. After fifth grade, the deaf child's elementary staff meets with the staff of his or her new middle school.</p><p>That's when the best possible education plan is created to meet the child's needs. Some students may have learning disabilities and end up in a mainstream self-contained ESE classroom, while others who are learning at grade level are assigned an interpreter and proceed in mainstream classes.</p><p>Marion County has 28 deaf children and 88 classified as hard of hearing in all elementary grade levels. Most of the deaf children attend, or have attended, South Ocala Elementary, which has been the hub for services since the late 1990s. The school district moved it there from Belleview Elementary because South Ocala was closer to the majority of the students who needed services.</p><p>The program didn't always operate this way. In 2006-07, South Ocala had 12 deaf children in pre-K through fifth grade. Regardless of the severity of each child's disability, or learning ability, they were divided into two groups: grades K-2 and 3-5.</p><p>They were all taught in one room divided by a piece of tape on the floor and a line of bookcases.</p><p>Two teaching teams, each with one teacher and one interpreter, were assigned students in their grade levels. Each student's hearing impairment, as well as learning ability, ranged dramatically.</p><p>One child was deaf with major learning disabilities and had parents who had never learned sign language. A classmate was only deaf, with no learning disability, and could sign and learn at grade level.</p><p>Teaching two children with such different needs in the same classroom was an insurmountable challenge. In the end, the district formulated a better plan for the deaf and hearing-impaired.</p><p>The plan focused on inclusion, which started to gain nationwide momentum many years ago for students with a variety of disabilities.</p><p>At South Ocala there are currently 18 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Most are deaf and most started their academic careers at age 3 in Lisa Corneilson's pre-K class, which is just for the deaf and hard of hearing.</p><p>These children get two full years of in-depth education. In most cases, it is the child's first time learning to communicate. (About 80 percent of the children come to the school district without any prior training in sign language.)</p><p>After two years in Corneilson's room, the children are then evaluated. The children deemed to be learning at grade level are placed in traditional classrooms with interpreters. There is an interpreter assigned to each grade level that has a deaf or hearing-impaired child attending mainstream classes.</p><p>This method strives to achieve as much inclusion as possible. A minimalist approach would limit inclusion to just physical education classes or other non-core subjects.</p><p>At South Ocala, teacher Tara Hunter's job is to travel from room to room, working individually with these mainstream deaf children in areas where they may be struggling.</p><p>“My job is to keep them on grade level” and prepared for the FCAT, she said.</p><p>The children who are not learning at grade level are placed in a “self-contained classroom” until the teacher, Katy Owen, can get them up to grade level. That classroom is just for the deaf and hard of hearing.</p><p>Still, though they report to Owen every morning, many of these students also attend some mainstream classes, such as music and PE. Under a minimalist approach, students learning below grade level may never be mainstreamed.</p><p>“Why should we treat deaf children any differently than our own children?” Owen asked. “We shouldn't.”</p><p>In the end, South Ocala Principal Lisa Coy said the inclusion plan is successful for one reason: “I have such a great staff.”</p><p>Bowie said deaf and hearing-impaired students deserve to be included. She credits former South Ocala Principal Laura Burgess — now Maplewood Elementary principal — in helping develop the program.</p><p>If the district reverted to placing all the deaf and hearing-impaired students back in one classroom, the district could save about $100,000 — the cost of five interpreters.</p><p>Though district officials say such a move would not technically violate the intent of federal mainstreaming policy, it would negatively affect education for the deaf and hard-of-hearing students.</p>